Olympia Network Upgrade: ECIP Review Begins

The Ethereum Classic community opened formal review of the Olympia network upgrade — the most significant protocol change proposed for ETC since its founding. The upgrade introduces EIP-1559 dynamic fee markets, a non-inflationary treasury mechanism, and an on-chain governance framework.

## The Olympia ECIPs

The upgrade is defined across multiple Ethereum Classic Improvement Proposals:

**ECIP-1111: Olympia Network Upgrade**
The meta-ECIP that activates the upgrade at a specified block height. It bundles the individual protocol changes into a single coordinated activation, ensuring all nodes upgrade simultaneously.

**ECIP-1112: Olympia Treasury Contract**
Defines an immutable, non-custodial smart contract that receives redirected base fees from EIP-1559 transactions. Unlike the original EIP-1559 design where base fees are burned, Olympia redirects them to fund public goods development. The treasury contract has no admin keys and no upgrade mechanism — funds can only be disbursed through the governance process.

**ECIP-1113: Olympia DAO Governance Framework**
Establishes a modular on-chain governance system for managing treasury funds. The framework defines proposal submission, voting mechanisms, and execution processes. Governance decisions are enforced by smart contracts, not by social consensus among off-chain parties.

**ECIP-1114: ETC Funding Proposal Process (ECFP)**
Standardizes the lifecycle for funding proposals — from submission through review, voting, and disbursement. This creates a transparent, repeatable process for allocating treasury resources to development, infrastructure, and ecosystem growth.

## Non-Inflationary Design

A critical design decision: Olympia does not create new tokens. Miners continue to receive their full block rewards and priority fees (tips). Only the base fee — which EIP-1559 would otherwise burn — is redirected to the treasury. This means the monetary policy established by ECIP-1017 remains unchanged: the 210.7 million ETC supply cap is preserved.

## Review Process

The ECIPs were published in Draft status, opening a formal review period for the community to evaluate the proposals. Core developers, miners, node operators, and community members were invited to provide feedback through the standard ECIP process.

## Testing Plan

The upgrade targets deployment on the Mordor testnet before mainnet activation, allowing thorough multi-client testing across Core-Geth, Besu, and Fukuii — the three ETC client implementations preparing Olympia support.